Chapter 12: Locks and Keys


"Ugh, it is completely disgusting here." Axel said, waving his hand over his nose as the boat neared the harbor on Destiny Islands. During the night it was a swift, efficient assembly line of grunting men heaving unmarked cargo. During the day, it was a writing cluster of fish mongers and their ambiguously dated catches hollering to potential customers and shipping crew members alike. The smell was overwhelming. "Let's turn back."

"Let's go," Xemnas muttered. He was beginning to lose his patience. The trip to the harbor had been a bitter, painful, nightmarish torture of unnecessary chatter, bickering, and idiocy, all of which occurred between Axel and Seifer. At one point, Axel threatened to throw Seifer overboard, and Xemnas didn't even have to look behind him to know that he was being serious. It wasn't until land was finally spotted that the two of them had managed to calm down enough to become civil. At this point Xemnas was exhausted, and deeply considering whether all of this was even necessary anymore. After all, Axel did mention that all of this had occurred at night, discretely in the back of a warehouse. If he just let this matter get swept underneath the rug like so many others had been in the past, he could just wrap up the morning with a trip back to his office, a strong cup of coffee laced with an adult beverage, and call the day a bust.

Then he heard Axel and Seifer bickering behind him about where the boat should be secured to the dock.

Perhaps the beverage would just have to wait. Teaching those two a valuable lesson in responsibility had just become vastly more important than his own comfort. He gritted his teeth and steered the vessel to an unoccupied area of the dock just as the sun was about to set. Hating his decision to hire all of them, Xemnas barked out orders to tether the vessel to the dock to Axel, Rai, and Seifer, then hopped off.

Their actions came unnoticed, just as Xemnas hoped they would. The mongers were too busy trying to sell their fish, and the loaders were too busy trying to ignore them. If all went well, the whole affair could be wrapped up in a matter of hours.

Xemnas turned to Seifer with an unamused expression. "Where is he?"

"Oh right," Seifer rubbed the back of his head. "Back here. I'll show you." He led Xemnas, Rai, and one very agitated Axel through a maze of boxes, tables, fish and other pungent fixtures. A particularly gruesome splash of fish innards decorated the side of a nearby cooler containing hand-packed beverages, and Seifer willed the contents of his stomach to stay where they were. If he never saw the harbor again after today, it would still be too soon.

As he led, he kept sparing glances back towards Xemnas. Though the trail was somewhat lengthy, his supervisor's expression remained neutral. Perhaps he was pleased that Seifer bothered to obtain such an obscure location. These could be precious bonus points that he was accruing, and he would do anything to keep himself as far above Demyx's old position as possible.

The rusted finish of warehouse A-3 suddenly made its appearance in front of them, and Seifer found himself repulsed. He hadn't remembered the place looking so shabby at night, but during the daytime he could clearly see why it had been abandoned. Despite the spider's webs and insect carcasses that wrapped the building tightly like some kind of horrific wall paper, rust, mold, and strange unidentifiable green patches still managed to penetrate the silk and carapace barrier to make the building look more like the a crypt at a haunted mansion than a warehouse. He wrinkled nose.

Xemnas looked at him expectantly.

Seifer swallowed.

Axel put a hand on his hip. "Open 'er up."

Seifer grimaced as he looked at the garage door, a door he had at one point touched. "Aren't you going to help me?"

"Nope."

Seifer snorted. "I was talking to Rai. Let's go."

Rai silently followed, and ended up pulling the garage door up by himself as Seifer watched on. The sick feeling was still being fought in his stomach, but at least his hands were still clean.

As the door opened, Axel immediately put a preparatory hand over his nose. "Great," he said, his voice muffled by part of his sleeve. "He's probably rotting in there by now. This is so disgusting I don't even have words."

Rai sent a panicked glance at Xemnas. "Is he really? How can we put someone back inside a rotting corpse, y'know?"

Xemnas rolled his eyes. "Ritual 221. You all are clearly in need of a refresher course. Show me where the body is."

Seifer nodded, still unsure of how well he was going to handle revisiting the body he had placed there, but he did as he was told, leading Xemnas through the array of crates and misplaced objects on the floor.

"Here we are," he said at last, pointing towards the tower of boxes that somehow looked a lot neater than he remembered placing them. He shrugged and moved two of them to reveal Riku's shoe.

Axel made a gagging sound in the back of his throat.

Xemnas helped him clear the remaining boxes, where Riku's body was draped across the ground in a dusty and bruised heap. If Xemnas hadn't been used to Saix's far more colorful messes, he might have had a similar reaction to Axel. As it was, his face remained cooly indifferent. "Well," he said with a huff, eyeing the body. "You certainly didn't hold back."

"It was a group effort," Seifer wheezed out, mind wandering to how safe it might be for all of them to be in such close proximity to the deceased. More than the actual health implications, he was bothered by how creepy it felt. "What would you like us to do now, sir?"

"Nothing. Stand there for a moment."Xemnas walked past the two of them, stepping over the crates and dusty floor boards to examine Riku a bit closer. Axel didn't bother to withhold his disgust as Xemnas lifted one of his arms, tested for joint movement, and examined various pulse points. Satisfied, he stepped back, and replaced the crates, entombing Riku just as he had been before the four of them had arrived.

"Eh, what's going on, sir?"

Xemnas looked at Seifer and nodded. "It seems the body is still in good enough condition to be a brought back to life once again."

"Great." Axel shoved his hands in his pockets. "Can we get a move on with this freak-show circus act?"

"Not yet. We're missing a vital component."

Axel rolled his eyes. "What? Tape?"

"Hardly." Xemnas turned to Seifer. "You're sure it's been less than a day since you…did this?"

Seifer nodded enthusiastically. "Yes sir."

"Good. Then he shouldn't have gotten far."

"Eh…who shouldn't have?"

Xemnas cleared his throat, hoping that this concept could be explained in a matter of minutes. He was becoming increasingly more concerned with this particular group's lack of knowledge. It was decided that a few mandatory training sessions were to be set up immediately after their return, and he would take great delight in informing the other Organization members who inspired the need. An early morning seminar about the importance of attentiveness would certainly do a satisfactory job of beating down some particularly strong pride, and if that didn't, Larxene would.

"Riku," Xemnas began, hoping that this explanation wouldn't take a lot of time. "Riku's ghost."

Xemnas was surrounded by a ring of dropped jaws.

He sighed, hope dashed. "The shell, his body is here, but this is merely a vessel. We need Riku himself to be present in order to bring him back."

"You mean there are two people inside a person? Like, there are two of me, y'know?"

"No, not at all." Xemnas closed his eyes. "Imagine a robot. It has a body, parts that are able to move, a head, legs, arms. Be that as it may, without a power source, it is merely an inanimate object. We are looking for that source of animation, the animate. The typical form of this resembles a transparent, colorless image of the individual who has passed, or, in common terms, a ghost."

Rai started gurgling, and rubbing his arms. "There are ghosts running around? Watching us? I don't like that, y'know?"

"I should hope not, unless you've taken liberty to do away with more people without telling me." He scanned Seifer and Rai's expressions to make sure that this was not the case before continuing. "Ritual 61 and 226 are responsible for this separation, and, if done correctly, are strictly limited to the individual that you have terminated."

Rai didn't look at all eased by the news, but nodded anyway. "So what do we have to do?"

"Find him."

Axel leaned against a nearby crate and folded his arms. "How exactly are we supposed to find a ghost? They're not exactly known for being easy to find. He could be anywhere, sliding between walls, possessing people, messing with lights…"

Xemnas nodded. "That is the unfortunate truth of the matter. However, given that you three were part of the group that killed him, you may possess an ability to locate him."

"Which would be?"

"Aside from me, you very well might be among the few who are able to see him."

"You mean that's optional?"

Xemnas nodded. "A body's animate can be very fickle, which is why I prefer to deal with them as infrequently as possible. They aren't visible to people under normal circumstances, which makes tracking them down without the aid of a clairvoyant tricky. They do, have a tendency to make inadvertent links to the physical world with things of great importance to them. In some cases those links are pets, family, and even those who murdered them."

Seifer rubbed his suddenly cold hands together. "What? I can see ghosts now?"

"This one, yes."

"Great." Axel muttered. "So, we have to find this kid's ghost that we may or may not be able to see so you can put him back in his body like a turkey sandwich in a Tupperware dish. Sounds like fun."

Xemnas couldn't help the tiny smirk that spread across his face. "It should be quite the adventure. Do take it seriously, though. Don't damage it. Animates are more fragile than they look." He made sure that he stared pointedly at Axel. "If you don't find him, he may decide to haunt you for the rest of your life."

Rai let out a loud moan, but Axel looked indifferent. "You're really doing your best to make this an enjoyable outing, aren't you?"

Xemnas chuckled and chose a corner to wait in while the three of them ventured out to scour the island. "Being a mirthless scout leader is a heavy burden to bear, but I am willing to sacrifice your joy for an efficient, and well-organized resolution."

"Hmph. Scout leader." Axel shoved Seifer hard in the shoulder, and stepping back to avoid Seifer's counter assault. "Any idea where we might find him, or is that all up in the air, too?"

Xemnas lifted his arms in a shrug. "Often, animates prefer places with which they have some familiarity: home, places of work, etcetera."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Would you happen to know where those places are?"

"I might have an idea."

"Are you going to share with the class, or is it more fun for you to be cryptic and stingy?"

Xemnas took great displeasure in being addressed in such a manner, but to save on the amount of time it would take to bestow an effective scolding, he withheld commentary on the matter. "Since you seem to be so enthusiastic about ghost hunting, I'll leave the main part of the island all to you. Seifer, check Riku's apartment. Rai…" he looked over at the timid looking trainee and sighed. "You can search the harbor. Don't wander off too far."

Axel grimaced. "You're a sadist," he spat and stormed out of the warehouse. Seifer didn't look pleased either, but he left quietly, leaving Rai and Xemnas alone.

Rai sheepishly looked over at Xemnas, who leaned against a nearby wall, eyes closed, mind reveling in the silence. Rai gulped hard, and backed away. Since Seifer had done his best to make sure that Xemnas hated him, Rai was determined to win himself some redeeming points while he was alone. He felt for a knife in his pocket, and gripped it with his fingers. As quietly as he could, he left the warehouse and began stalking the docks for a renegade ghost.


Sora was huffing and puffing by the time he reached Riku's apartment. He ran all the way there, but didn't have time to appreciate his physical skill, as he was still worried about what kind of trouble Riku may have gotten himself into. Neither one of them proved to be the most rational people when they were upset—or bored—and since he hadn't remembered a time that Riku had ever been this upset, he was a bit worried as to what this could mean. Would he just wander around until he withered away? Would he try to find his own way back into his body? Would it be as reckless as the way he had gotten out of it? Sora could not let any of those outcomes occur, not while he was still able to do something about it. He and Riku had grown a bit apart, but he was determined now more than ever to restore their friendship to the vibrant beacon of greatness that it once was, starting with finding Riku's ghost and getting it back into his body.

Riku's apartment was in a complex similar to Sora's: a few stories of blank white walls and identical looking windows that faced stairwells with chipping paint and splintering wood. He headed up one of the stair cases, its location memorized after frequent visits years ago that had recently become less frequent, and walked his way to where he knew Riku's apartment was.

Room 173.

He looked at the white wood of the door, and the golden numbers, the small lamp that lit the corridor, remembering when he used to hang out with Riku here, play video games, and make Riku cook for him. They were good times, before Sora had started working for The Filter, and before Riku started working at the harbor. Their friendship had been simple, effortless, uncomplicated with things like time, priorities, and…death.

Sora remembered how he would come over on the weekends during the early afternoons, drag Riku out of bed and together they would wreak havoc on the ice cream sold by the vendors on the pier. His visits used to be such a frequent occurrence, that Riku used to just leave the door unlocked. Sora had insisted that this was an unsafe practice, so if he remembered correctly, Riku had left him a safer option of entry.

Pushing himself on his hands and knees, he slipped his hand beneath the welcome mat for a tin metal nail file that he knew Riku kept there. Snatching it up, and feeling a bit like a criminal, he used it to pry one of the glass slats away from the lamp. Buried beneath the powdery layer of insect carcasses, was the key. It brought Sora some comfort to know that Riku hadn't been angry enough to remove the key from its hiding place—provided that he had even come back here—and he hastily pushed it into the lock. Turning it hard, he pushed the door open and hoped that some sign of Riku would present itself: a surprised yell, a general exclamation of hatred for Sora, even a light floating through a wall.

The living room was empty, but Sora was not about to give up. He kicked his shoes off and entered, somewhat uncomfortable at the darkness of the room, and the way in which the moon basted only the couch in a stream of iridescent light. The light reminded him of Riku in his current form, pale, ghostly, and haunting.

As he meandered through the living room, he couldn't help but survey some of Riku's belongings. He had never really been one for keeping mass quantities of stuff, as Sora had been the only member of his current group of friends who he felt had a true appreciation for material items, but even though he understood the differences between his own clutter and Riku's minimalist preferences, the space still looked empty.

The gaming system that the two of them used to dedicate hours to was tucked beneath Riku's small television, seemingly having been untouched for quite some time. The remotes were neatly arranged on a coffee table that had apparently not seen much use either. In fact, the only indication that the living room was ever lived in was the deep indentions of a body on the couch. Sora remembered Riku telling him that he had slept there often, especially when nights at the harbor had been particularly rough. Sora wondered if Riku had slept there during before his recent trip to work, the day before he died.

Looking away from the couch, he wandered to Riku's kitchenette, clean, but a bit dusty from disuse. Sora wondered if Riku cooked for himself anymore. Did he still know how to make double chocolate milkshakes the way he used to, when Sora would goad him into it during one of their more intense video gaming sessions? Sora knew that it had been some time since he had come over, but did that mean that he stopped treating himself? Curious, and feeling the tiniest bit bad, Sora pried open Riku's refrigerator to view his food supply.

Milk, eggs, a few random condiments and processed meat made up the bulk of Riku's refrigerated items; however the cabinets did not yield much better options in terms of quality. Sora himself also hosted a refrigerator comprised of foods he wouldn't actually have to cook, but that was only because every time he started the stove, he could be fairly certain something was going to catch on fire. Riku didn't have that problem. It seemed strange that Riku was living these days on cereal and dubiously fresh eggs. Sora wondered if this had anything to do with his hours down at the harbor, or had he just lost interest in the effort it took to cook. Regardless, his meager food supply was pathetic, and Sora decided that once all of this was over, he was going to make a better effort to come visit, if only to get Riku to eat something more exciting than cereal.

Riku had yet to make an appearance, so he headed back through the living room, down the hallway towards his bedroom.

It was dark, as the curtains were drawn and left only a meager sliver of moonlight in over the bed. Sora swallowed hard, afraid to enter, but even more afraid to turn on the lights, he settled on calling his name into the darkness.

There was no reply.

From what he could tell, the bed was made, but there was no sign that it had been occupied any time recently. The room was empty. This meant that Sora had been right about Riku sleeping the couch, but it also meant that even ghost-Riku hadn't been inside.

Sora didn't give up. This house, the emptiness, the dust…it made him feel even more sorrowful for the state of things. The change between daily visits to each others' houses to now sporadic impromptu medical treatments at Sora's apartment had been a gradual, but he was sorry to see that it took Riku's death for him to realize that this was what their friendship had come to. When he found Riku, things were going to change.

In a similar fashion, Sora checked the bathroom, the closets and even a few of the cabinets, calling for Riku when he felt like he was being particularly invasive. Other than receiving a massive blast from the past, and a sinking feeling about a friendship that he had at one point considered infallible, the trip had been unfruitful. Riku was nowhere to be found.

Resisting the urge to cry out in frustration, he checked Riku's apartment off his mental list of places to visit. He was excited to leave, as wandering around in the dark, empty space bothered him in more ways than one, but that meant there was another place he was forced to check, a place that he had hoped to avoid.

Sora closed his eyes to mentally prepare himself for the trip down the harbor, and hoped with all of his might that he wouldn't have to do much hunting. The likelihood of running into trouble was already high when going to the harbor, but the likelihood of running into it skyrocketed when going at night.

With one final preparatory breath, he headed for the door, pulled on his shoes, and felt for Riku's spare key in his pocket.

He twisted open the door.

What he was met with, though, was not just a gust of cool night air.

Before him stood a young man wearing a long, hooded black coat. He looked to be about the same age as Sora, tall, pale, and crowned with a shock of blond hair that looked to be styled for a magazine.

A long, slanting scar ran from the top corner of his right eye brow to his left cheek bone.

A lock-picking kit was in his right hand.

He was not smiling.

Sora felt his hands get a clammy, and he licked his lips before responding. He'd never seen this person before, and if he had come all the way over here to see Riku in the middle of the night with an effort to break in, it probably meant that trouble wasn't far from sight.

"Uh, can I help you?" Sora tried to make the sentence sound as natural as possible, and act as if he hadn't seen the lock picking kit, but even he couldn't keep the nervous warble out of his voice.

The man looked up, blue eyes scrunching up in irritation. "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry?"

A gloved hand came up to massage the scar, and he groaned something about Xemnas not telling him about a roommate, before he let out a long sigh. He pocketed the kit and looked to be fishing his mind for something suitable to say. "Sorry," he said at last, thrusting his hand forward. "You caught me off guard."

"Eh…? That's…okay?" Sora wasn't sure of what to do, so he took the proffered hand and shook it with unease.

The man retracted it and shoved both hands in his pockets. "I'm Seifer. Question for you. Do you know where I can find Riku?"

Sora knew this was the start of the trouble revealing itself. Maybe Roxas hadn't been too far off the mark about the group of thugs trying to chase them down. He just wasn't sure why they were here if they knew that Riku was already dead. He cleared his throat. "Can I ask who you are?"

"That's none of your—!" Seifer realized that he was starting to yell, so he cleared his throat and tried again. "I mean, I'm eh…I'm a friend. We work down at the harbor together. I'm trying to find him."

"Oh." That sealed it. Riku didn't have any friends down at the harbor. That was one of the reasons he liked it so much. "Is that so?"

Seifer looked as though he had just stepped on a rock. "…Eh, more like an acquaintance. Anyway, do you know where I can find him?"

"Well, he's not here," Sora said honestly. "Can I take a message for you?"

"Only if you'll see him…which I doubt. Don't worry about it. I'll just eh…check back at the harbor. Thanks."

Sora nodded and watched as he headed down the steps, kicking a rock as he cleared the landing.

Sora had already decided that he didn't like what this person was up to, especially since he was trying to break into the apartment, and it was further proven by how the conversation had gone. Sora himself was about to head to the harbor as well, but now he had even more of a reason to now that this strange coated man had shown up. He narrowed his eyes as he watched between the slats of the wooden stairs as he disappeared behind the swell of the hill.

Then he slipped out of the apartment, locked the door behind him, and followed.